To: U.S. Senate, Congress, U.S. State Dept., White House, E.U., Rep. of MacedoniaP E T I T I O N

We, the below signed Orthodox Christians, citizens of the United States of
America, and of many countries of the western world, direct this petition,
at the same time as a voice of plea, and of common sense too, and in
accordance with the still unsolved situation of His Beatitude Archbishop
Jovan, who, beside all the positive laws of the free world, is still in
prison, as a victim of misunderstanding and lack of good will of the
authorities of the FYRO Macedonia.

One of the basic foundation on which all the democratic principles of a
free world rest, is the freedom of religious confession. We, as Orthodox
Christians, and also the Christians of other confessions who feel the
grace of all civil rights and the freedom of religious confession,
in America, and the rest of the western countries, cannot
reconcile the fact that the biggest and the only “guilt” of the imprisoned
Archbishop Jovan is that he, in a peaceful and decent way, menacing
nobody, in unity with ecumenical Church, wishes to complete the mission of the Ohrid Archbishopric in the FYRO Macedonia.

The lone fact that today in Europe, at the beginning of the twenty-first
century, a Christian dignitary of a church, is staying in prison, and in
accordance with all the positive laws of the modern world, menacing nobody
and nothing, throws an enormous flaw on all of the phrases of civil and
religious freedoms, coming from the FYRO Macedonia. It is difficult
to understand how the authorities of the FYRO Macedonia imagine the
entry in the European Union, and in the increasing family of advanced
countries, while at the same time, expressed in mild words, they are
proceeding according to feudal principles when interpreting and putting
their laws into effect.

The prison sentence, with which Archbishop Jovan has been punished, is
nothing else but yet indelible heritage of the communist regime, which the
authorities in the FYRO Macedonia proceed in their thoughts and
unfortunately in their deeds.

As citizens of a free world, we direct the voice of our protest against
the unprecedented breaking of civil, human and religious rights over
Archbishop of Ohrid Jovan, and over all other people upon whom his mission
is spread, at the same time pleading all the major factors who are
responsible for proceeding democratic principles in the free world, by the
voice of COMMON SENSE, PEACE and GOOD WILL, to do everything in their
power so that Archbishop Jovan is free in the shortest period of time.
We are forwarding this petition to all governmental agencies in USA(State Department, Senate, Congress, White House), also West Europe as well as to government of Republic of Macedonia.
We kindly ask you for your prayers as well and as an expression of good will, to please sign this petition in support of the cause to release our beloved Archbishop Jovan from prison in FYRO Macedonia.